The revelation this week that the owner of an Algerian cargo ship whose crew was held by Somali pirates paid them $2.6 million in ransom is yet another indication that piracy remains a serious stumbling block to ending maritime organised crime, AdvanFort Company President and COO William H. Watson said.
The MV Blida, carrying seventeen Algerians, six Ukrainians, two Filipinos, one Jordanian and one Indonesian, was overtaken by a gang of heavily- armed pirates on its way from Oman to Tanzania, with almost all the hostages freed after a bag full of cash was dropped from a plane to the captors.
Unnecessary Tax
Rear Admiral Bob Tarrant, the Operation Commander of the EU Naval Force, warns that piracy is not over, it is merely contained and vigilance is needed. Watson: ‘This means that the costs associated with world-wide shipping remain burdened by a transnational security threat that carries with it an unnecessary tax that unfairly buffets the maritime industry.’
Ransoms Have Increased Sevenfold
Although the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean are now protected by a coalition of world navies, in 2011 pirates staged 439 violent attacks and held hostage 802 crewmembers.
Although the ransom paid by the Saudi owner of the MV Blida was $2.6 million, the average paid to pirates that year was $4.97 million. According to a recent report, the some $170 million in ransom payments to piracy made during 2011 was a more than fifty percent increase from the total of $110 million they received in 2010.
During the period 2007-2011, it noted, the ransoms paid ‘have increased sevenfold,’ with average ransoms increasing from about $600,000 in 2007 to some $5 million in 2011.
$13.5 Million for a Supertanker
In February 2011, $13.5 million in ransom was paid to secure the release of a supertanker, the MV Irene, which carried 2 million barrels of Kuwaiti oil, estimated to be worth $200 million and destined for the United States.
‘The silver lining in all those clouds on the horizon is the fact that those vessels protected by first-rate PMSCs remain outside the pirates’ greedy reach,’ Watson said.
